Hygiene and Sanitation Practices and the Risk of Morbidity among Children 6–23 Months of Age in Kumbungu District, Ghana

Table 6

Backward multivariate binary logistic regression of the determinants of diarrhoea and RTI morbidity among the 6–23 months children.

Variable	Diarrhoea		Respiratory tract infection (RTI)		Both diarrhoea and RTI		Either diarrhoea or RTI
	Odds ratio (95% C.I)	-value	Odds ratio (95% C.I)	-value	Odds ratio (95% C.I)	-value	Odds ratio (95% C.I)	-value
Caregiver washes hands with or without soap after defecating (ref = No)
Yes			0.29 (0.10, 0.81)	0.02	0.43 (0.17, 1.05)	0.06
Caregiver washes hands with soap after defecating (ref = No)
Yes	0.32 (0.19, 0.52)	<.0001			0.39 (0.23, 0.67)	0.0006	0.39 (0.21, 0.72)	0.004
Caregiver washes hands with soap before feeding (ref = No)
Yes	0.50 (0.30, 0.84)	0.009			0.61 (0.35, 1.04)	0.07
Child’s hands washed with or without soap before feeding (ref = No)
Yes	0.21 (0.04, 1.01)	0.052
Child’s hands are washed with soap before feeding (ref = No)
Yes			0.60 (0.37, 0.99)	0.047
Household toilet facility
Public toilet, latrine or WC			0.52 (0.27, 1.02)	0.058			0.50 (0.24, 1.07)	0.07
Otherwise (surrounding bush)			1				1
How garbage is disposed
Dug pit/burn					1		1
Otherwise^1					2.68 (1.10, 6.53)	0.03
Where child defecates								0.03
Chamber pot							1
Outside the compound							1.78 (0.93, 3.39)
Other^2							4.07 (1.15, 14.38)
Treatment of fruits and vegetables
Water and salt (saline)							4.07 (1.15, 14.18)	0.03
Otherwise^3							1
Model fit statistics
Log likelihood ratio	35.61	<.0001	12.84	0.005	25.54	<.0001	24.40	0.0002
Wald test	30.42	<.0001	12.19	0.007	25.52	<.0001	23.69	0.0007
Nagelkerke’s		0.16	0.06		0.12		0.13

Values are odds ratios and 95% confidence interval; ref = reference group; ¹inlcudes rubbish dump site and surrounding bush; ²inside compound, surrounding bush; ³includes washing with only water; statistically significant at 5% level of significance.